4th

So as i was saying the students have gotten to know me and the way i teach at an extremely fast pace. The epiphany i had was, you have to teach using your own style, no matter how uncomfortable you are with a subject. if you don't, the student notice almost immediately and seems to make them question you even more. I am not trying to downplay the importance of listening to the advice or methods of your peers and mentors. That behavior is crucial in its own way. when it comes down to it, you have to be confident in yourself and students will react positively to it.

On a side note. If you are reading this you are probably in the same course and know why I am posting these messages. If not, you should know that as part of a writing class we are required to post 4 posts a week for credit. It point is to increase the amount of writing we do.  At first i was hesitant to post (read 1st post) but now i realize it is a great exercise.

3rd

I had an interesting epiphany today. It happened after teaching my intro to botany course this morning. I had been a TA for intro to botany for 4 semesters, so when i was asked to be an instructor for my own intro to botany course i felt confident that i would do well. As usual, things are never the way the seem at first. I have had my ups and downs, beating myself up about my teaching style and basking in the glory of a successful lesson. I am always trying to improve the way i teach and maybe more importantly the way i prepare to teach. 

This semester I am fortunate to have two veteran colleges teaching other sections of the same course right before i teach my own section. For certain subjects, I found it helpful to sit in and listen to how they run their class and go about teaching the information. Being a bit green, I try to take what i can and apply it to my own style. I have had mixed results doing this. It seems that the students understand how i am trying to teach them and they notice when i am using the teaching style of another rather than my own. for the sake of the homework i will continue in another post.....

2nd

A little information about myself.

These days I am a professional plant ecologist in training. I do not wish to talk about work at this point, rather i would like to share my other passions in life. I am recently engaged to a wonderful woman with whom i love to spend my time with. We share many similar passions, of which nature, sports and food are some big ones. 

We enjoy growing our own food and are having success even during such a year of extreme heat and drought. We also raise chickens. We have 4 chickens, two rhode island red hens (big red) and two bantam old english hens (little black). We have experienced ups and downs since we got them. 

This weekend we are finally rewarded for our hard work and monetary input through the laying of the first eggs. We have been expecting them to lay for about a week, and the chickens were getting very uneasy about what inevitably was a painful experience. more later... 

1st entry

Welcome,
This is the first of many posts about whatever. Blogging is a new experience for me. I do not necessarily enjoy putting personal thoughts or ideas into a public view. The reason is that my thoughts and ideas are almost constantly changing. A blog seems like too much of a permanent record of your ideas and thoughts. Even if you delete them from the blog, your ideas may permanently be kept by someone else.
Being fairly young, I like to think that the way i view and understand the world is naive. Therefore I certainly do not view my ideas and thoughts as permanent view points or some sort of truth. Thus blogging makes me a bit uncomfortable because, in my opinion, putting ideas and thoughts on paper adds a touch of permanency to them. So, this post may serve the purpose of a disclaimer or advice. Keep your mind open and your thoughts fluid.